


Before/During/After (with Additional Parts)

by MinervaFan



Category: Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures, Sarah Jane Smith (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-13
Updated: 2009-10-13
Packaged: 2020-03-05 18:30:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18834298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinervaFan/pseuds/MinervaFan
Summary: Harry and Sarah find themselves stranded and isolated on an alien planet.  And then things get sort of strange.





	Before/During/After (with Additional Parts)

I. Before

The quarry was a vast, forbidding place. Harry Sullivan surveyed the rocks, knowing that for all their rough edges, they were more welcoming and tender than his companion was at the moment.

Sarah Jane Smith glared silently forward, her face a mask of indignation, her tiny fists clenched in determination at her thighs.

She was stone-walling him, Harry realized. Giving the old silent treatment.

Good for her. He blamed himself anyway. He was the one who had challenged the Doctor. He was the one who had made the comment. He was the one who had gotten them stuck here.

She was abandoned merely by the unfortunate fact that she shared a genetic similarity to him, what with being human and all, and the Doctor was not in the mood for any human company.

"He'll be back for us in a moment," Harry said hopefully as they trudged toward the west. He wasn't sure why they'd chosen west, when east, north, and south seemed equally forbidding. But west it was, and west they traveled.

Still in silence.

Harry cast another glance towards Sarah. Her cheeks were pink—with exertion or anger, he wasn't certain. He could see on her face that she was breathing deeply, eyes straight forward in exaggerated concentration.

It was going to be a long walk to nowhere.

II. During

They were quite nice-looking aliens. Harry looked up at the first one, all lavender-turquoise-sparkly with dangly bits from what he assumed was its head. Its texture was like a lovely scarf his mum had once owned. Harry wondered how his mum was doing, and if she still had that scarf.

"Erm, I really would like to see my friend," he said. The make-shift cage they'd created was comfortable enough. It was elaborate and organic at once—rather Scandinavian to his eyes.

//male-fe//

"Female. Yes, Sarah. I'm really quite worried about her."

//unharmed female. Disagreeable.//

"Well, yes, sometimes. But…" As accommodating as the aliens were being, Harry felt honor-bound to defend his friend. "Well, she had sort of a right. You see, I got us abandoned here, and she…it's rather complicated."

//female is good?//

"Oh, yes, Sarah's a smashing girl. A very good friend, when she's not furious with me."

The aliens leaned together, dangly bits bobbing and sending off sparks as they communed.

//female acceptable.//

"Oh, thank goodness," Harry whispered.

III. Sideways

The light in his chambers was blinding. Harry had to cover his eyes for a moment, until the pain dulled and the light faded and he could see again without spots dancing before him.

"And Rani had—" The voice was feminine, casual, and quickly replaced by a shocked, "Bugger!"

Harry looked up to see a woman, dark-haired, slender, dressed in what appeared to be a modified man's suit. She was facing away from him, crouched in a position of wary preparedness.

"I say," Harry coughed. "Are you all right?"

The woman whirled around pointing, of all things, a tube of lipstick at him as if it were a weapon. She was about to speak, when she saw his face. Her eyes got very wide, and her mouth dropped open in surprise. "Oh, my god…" she whispered.

"Sorry," he said, crossing the distance to her side and offer his hand in welcome. "Didn't mean to startle you. Lieutenant Harry Sullivan, Royal Navy." He squinted as she rose to stare at him. The woman looked very familiar. Quite lovely—a bit older than he was, but still…

"Oh, my god," she whispered again. Then she threw herself in his arms, kissing him on the cheek with great gusto. "Harry! Oh, my god, Harry, it's you! You're here!" She turned around, surveying their surroundings. "Where's here?"

"Some planet in the Beta Gamma Epsilon system," he offered.

"There are no habitable planets in the Beta Gamma Epsilon system," she frowned. "Wait. What year is this?"

"What _year_ is this?" Harry scanned the woman, looking for any sign of a head impact or trauma. "Erm…it's 1975, by my calculation. Of course, in my line of work, it's often hard to pinpoint…"

The woman began to laugh, then she began to shake, then she hugged him again. "1975? _Of course_ , it's 1975. And you're Harry." She rubbed a tear from her eyes, looking around. "I suppose the Doctor is around here somewhere."

"Actually, he's taken off in a huff, but I suspect he'll be back to gather us in—wait a minute. You know the Doctor?"

"Of course, I—" She paused, stricken, stunned. "You don't recognize me, do you?" she said softly.

"You seem very familiar, ma'am, but er…."

She took his hands gently in her own, smiling. "Harry, it's me. It's Sarah Jane Smith.

IV. Tangent

"So there I was in the attic, chatting away online with my friend Maria in Washington…"

"Chatting…online?" Harry asked.

"Internet. Bane of our existence, but it has its uses," the older Sarah said without skipping a beat.

Harry couldn't take his eyes off her. Once he'd made the connection, he saw the resemblance immediately. Sarah, his Sarah, had grown into a charming, lovely woman. He didn't believe her when she told him her age—she must have a bloody portrait aging in that attic of hers.

"Anyway, I was chatting with Maria when suddenly I'm consumed by this green alien light, pulled through some sort of portal, and here I am, having tea with you."

Harry coughed. "Sorry about that, old gir—" He stopped suddenly, blushing, coughing again. "I mean…"

Sarah laughed and hugged him again. "Today, I don't even mind the Old Girl, Harry. Oh, I've missed you."

"I take it…I'm not still around?"

Sarah's face turned dark, and she averted her eyes for a moment. "I'm not sure how much to tell you. I learned the hard way how much damage can come from having a wagging tongue in the past."

"Well, it's in the future, anyway," Harry said jovially. He didn't want to know too much about his own future, especially judging from her reaction. "It's the present I'm worried about. The aliens are basically hospitable—"

"Speak for yourself," Sarah grumbled, pulling another cake from the tray. "If this is the same planet I remember, _I_ spent the entire time in a dingy, cold, wet cell, plotting your utter ruination."

Harry felt he at least owed her a bit of embarrassment. "Well, they did say you were…erm, disagreeable."

"Got one of 'em, right in the dangly bit, before it threw me in the cell," Sarah said proudly.

"Sarah, maybe we should—"

He didn't finish his suggestion as the door opened and one of the aliens hovered in, shimmering and sparkling in what he could only imagine was satisfaction.

//female. Satisfactory?//

"Uh, she's—"

//ripened. Agreeable.//

"See here," Sarah started, springing to her feet. Harry grabbed her arm and held her back. With a deep breath, Sarah forced a smile. "I don't understand why you brought me here."

The alien nodded to Harry. //female.//

"Oh, of course. That makes perfect bloody sense," Sarah muttered under her breath.

Harry, however, had that sickening knot in his stomach he sometimes got when things started making the wrong kind of sense to him. After all, this Sarah was closer in age to him. She was more mature and settled and even had a son, so she said.

//more compatible.//

"I think you are mistaken," he offered, distracting the alien's attention from Sarah. "Sarah and I are friends, traveling companions."

"What are you talking…?" Sarah's eyes grew wide as it hit her, finally. "Over my dead body. Even if I were still capable, which, by the way, study your human physiology, I am _not_ …"

//offspring are possible.//

"I guess if they could snatch you out of 2009, I suppose a little thing like menopause…"

" _Pre-_ menopause, thank you," Sarah snapped.

"…wouldn't stop them." He flashed the alien a nervous smile. "Could my…friend and I have a moment of privacy to talk?"

Dangly bits bobbed, and the alien left them to themselves.

"No." Sarah was adamant, unyielding, as _Sarah Jane_ as always.

"I'm not suggesting we reproduce, Old Girl," Harry said. "But it won't help to antagonize them. As long as they think you're viable—"

"My younger self becomes redundant?"

"But they wouldn't harm the younger you. Not in any way that would damage the older you, which would be…you…"

"I have memories of escaping here, Harry. I wasn't just kept in that cell and pulled out when I got older. That means we escape, which is what I plan to do…"

"The Doctor…"

"Blast the Doctor. Can't wait on him forever," Sarah said. "We're gonna have to get out of here, free my younger self, and figure out a way to get us all back to our proper times."

"Maybe I can help?" a male voice said from the back of the room. He came out into the light—a slightly heavy man in his mid-50s, well-dressed with a brown ponytail and huge grin.

"Oh, my god…" Sarah whispered. "Josh?"

"Yeah, long story, we don't have time. Come with me."

And in a flash, the three of them were gone.

V. Upside Down

Sarah's attic was a mess. Dust everywhere, cluttered with relics, alien artifacts, and people. Harry looked around him, stunned by the reality of it all.

"Where's SJ?" the one called Josh asked a young woman with dark curly hair.

"She had to go with Rani and Clyde to get the locator." The young woman stared at the Sarah who had traveled back with them. "Wow. You look fantastic," she said with a wide grin.

"Maria?" Sarah caught her breath, then pulled the young woman into an enormous hug.

This Sarah seemed to be big on hugging, Harry noted.

The woman called Maria hugged her back, then turned back to Josh. "Nat's working downstairs with K9, trying to get him and Mister Smith not to kill each other while they do the calculations. We have to time it just right. I don't think we're gonna get more than one try at this for each of them."

"What's going on?" Sarah asked in an exasperated voice.

"Ah, ah, ahh…" Josh said. "C'mon, Sarah, you know better than any of us why I can't tell you too much. What I can tell you is that the transport can only work from a fixed point of reference, so we couldn't send you from site to site. We had to bring you here so we could send you back."

"But where is _here_ ," she asked. "Or more specifically, _when_ is here?"

"2019," Maria said, darting from the enormous computer terminal on the far wall to a smaller portable computer at the desk. "And don't ask any more."

"Maria…are you back in England now? How's your dad? How's your mum?" Sarah was laughing, grinning from ear to ear as if she were seeing a ghost.

"Not really good at this not asking thing, is she?" Josh said. He had dragged a thick cable from another room and was busily connecting it to various machines in the attic.

"No," Harry offered. "Sarah's always been curious. Do I even _want_ to know what this is all about?"

Maria paused, smiling. "You really are as sweet as she said you were, aren't you?" She wore jeans and a plaid shirt, her hair pulled back to reveal a strikingly attractive face. "Bottom line is that those alien friends of yours affected the time line, and we're trying to set it straight for all of us."

"Did you get them?" Sarah Jane's voice—another Sarah Jane—came up from the stairwell accompanied by the sound of thudding boots. The door opened wider, and she rushed in.

She wore a red-and-white pin stripe blazer, pale jeans, and red trainers. Her hair was completely white, and she still didn't look a day over forty.

The younger Older Sarah looked at her older Older self and blinked. "I _know_ I shouldn't be seeing this…" she murmured.

"Your hair…" Harry said.

"Finally let it go natural," the older woman said in a clipped tone as she planted a quick kiss on Josh's lips. "Got sick of that joke about the painting growing older in the attic. We got the locator."

"Thanks, love."

Younger Older Sarah was leaning against Harry now, staring in shock at the older version of herself. "He died," she whispered to Harry. "He died years ago."

"Apparently," he whispered back. "There's more to the story than you know. Did you see the rings?"

Younger Older Sarah blushed. "I knew he had a crush, but…"

A male voice boomed from the computer on the wall. "Approaching optimal transit coordinates," it said.

"Okay, we only have a moment or two." Josh bounded over to the pair, guiding them to separate pads. "SJ, your's is closer, so you go first."

"Don't call me SJ," she said absently, while her older self spoke simultaneously, "Don’t call _her_ SJ…"

"Sorry, dear," Josh said, winking at the younger version. "Have fun. The next few years should be a blast."

"But…"

"Don't worry," Maria said, giving her a peck on the cheek and a hug. "If this works like we hope it will, you won't remember a thing."

"But…"

"Optimal transit time in three…two…"

"But!"

A flash of light, and younger Older Sarah disappeared. Harry gulped at the smell of singed air, and turned expectantly to older Older Sarah Jane.

"Mister Smith, the timeline?"

"99.908% repaired," the computer responded.

"Good enough," Sarah Jane said. Turning to Harry, she added, "You're next. We should have about ten seconds."

"I'm very confused."

The look in Sarah's eyes was utter warmth and amusement. "You always were, dear Harry. You always were." She kissed his cheek, squeezed his hand, and stepped away from the platform. "Good travels, old friend."

And then he was gone.

VI. After

 

She found him wandering around the settlement, dazed. Sarah hissed from her hiding place behind the embankment, trying to get his attention.

"Harry," she whispered. "Harry, come _here_!"

Harry, looking as if he'd just come off four days shore leave, stumbled towards the sound of her voice. She grabbed his arm, pulling him down and out of the line of sight. "Where have you been?" she hissed. "I've been looking for you for hours."

"I was in the attic," he slurred, leaning against her for balance.

"Oi, you're drunk."

"Not drunk…just tea and cakes…."

Sarah glowered at him. "Here I was worried about you, and you're getting snockered with the alien natives. Who, incidentally, want to turn us into zoo exhibits."

Harry blinked hard. "What _are_ you talking about, Old Girl?"

" _Don't_ call me Old Girl."

"Okay, SJ."

Sarah frowned. "That's even worse. Look, we've got to get back to the landing site. The Doctor is stalling the aliens while I looked for you. No, you _can't_ go to sleep, Harry," she urged, shaking him as he began to doze. "Look, just lean on me. I'll get you there. But we have to go."

She heaved him to his feet, groaning under his weight.

"Did you say zoo exhibits?" Harry said as they trudged back toward the quarry.

"Yeah. The males are more easily domesticated," she gasped. "That's probably why they separated us."

"You were most disagreeable," he said, grinning down on her. Her face was bright in the moonlight, round and very much agreeable to his eyes. "Got 'em right in the dangly bits, didn't you?"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Come _on_ , Harry," she urged, and together they made their way back to the TARDIS.

The End  



End file.
